It Lies at the Foundation of Christian Doctrine from the Bible Standpoint --Three Views
of the Subject--The "Orthodox View," the "Heterodox View"; the Bible
View, which Unites and Harmonizes Both-- Evolution Theory Antagonistic to the Truth on
this Subject--Reconciliation of Divine Justice Accomplished--Reconciliation of the Church
in Progress--Reconciliation of the World Future--The Grand Final Results when the
Mediatorial Throne and Kingdom will be Vacated.

THE doctrine of the Atonement lies at the very foundation of the Christian religion.
Having thus the most important place in theology, a clear understanding of this subject is
very essential, and this is generally conceded amongst Christian people. Nevertheless, the
Atonement, though believed in, is little understood; the various ideas and theories
respecting it are disconnected as well as vague; and faith built upon these disconnected
and vague views of the foundation doctrine must, of necessity, be proportionately
unstable, weak and vague. On the contrary, if this important subject be clearly seen, in
all the grandeur of the proportions accorded it in the Word of God, as the foundation of
the divine plan of salvation, it not only will firmly establish faith, rooting and
grounding it upon correct principles, but it will serve as a guide in discriminating
between truth and error in connection with all the minutiae of faith. When the

::page 16::

foundation is well established and clearly discerned, and every item of faith built
upon it is kept in exact alignment with the foundation, the entire faith superstructure
will be perfect. As we shall show later, every doctrine and theory may be brought in
contact with this touchstone, and have its proportion of gold or of dross quickly
determined thereby.

There are two general views of the Atonement:

(1) What is known as the orthodox view, namely, that man, as a transgressor of the
divine law, came under divine condemnation--"under wrath"; and that God, while
hindered by Justice from exonerating the sinner, has provided a just redemption for him,
and thus provided for the forgiveness of his sins, through the sacrifice of Christ. This
entire work of satisfying the claims of Justice and making the sinner acceptable to God,
is denominated the work of Atonement. (2) What is known as the unorthodox view of the
Atonement (at one time represented chiefly by Unitarians and Universalists, but which has
recently been spreading rapidly and generally in every quarter of Christendom), approaches
the subject from the opposite side: it presupposes no requirement on the part of divine
justice of a sacrifice for the sinner's transgression; it ignores the wrath of God as
represented in any special sentence of death; it ignores "the curse." It holds
that God seeks and waits for man's approach, placing no hindrance in the way, requiring no
atonement for man's sin, but requiring merely that man shall abandon sin and seek
righteousness, and thus come into harmony with God--be at-one with God hence this
view is generally styled At-one-ment, and is understood to signify harmony with
righteousness regardless of the methods by which mankind may be brought into this state:
atonement for sin being considered from the standpoint of expiation by the sinner himself,
or else as unconditional forgiveness by God. From this standpoint our Lord Jesus and all

::page 17::

his followers have part in the at-one-ment, in the sense that they have taught and
exhorted mankind to turn from sin to righteousness, and in no sin-offering or ransom
sense. (3) The view which we accept as the Scriptural one, but which has been overlooked
very generally by theologians, embraces and combines both of the foregoing views. The
Bible doctrine of the Atonement, as we shall endeavor to show, teaches clearly: (a) That
man was created perfect, in the image of God, but fell therefrom, through wilful
disobedience, and came under the sentence of wrath, "the curse," and thus the
entire race became "children of wrath." `Eph. 2:3` (b) While God justly executed
against his disobedient creature the sentence of his law, death, and that without mercy,
for over four thousand years, yet, nevertheless, blended with this justice and fidelity to
principles of righteousness was the spirit of love and compassion, which designed an
ultimate substitutional arrangement or plan of salvation, by which God might still be just
and carry out his just laws against sinners, and yet be the justifier of all who believe
in Jesus. (`Rom. 3:26`) By this plan all the condemned ones might be relieved from the
sentence without any violation of Justice, and with such a display of divine love and
wisdom and power as would honor the Almighty, and prove a blessing to all his creatures,
human and angelic --by revealing to all, more fully than ever before seen, the much
diversified wisdom and grace of God. `Eph. 3:10` Diaglott (c) It was in the
carrying out of this program of Atonement to the divine law for its transgression by
father Adam, that our dear Redeemer died, "a ransom for all, to be testified in due
time," `1 Tim. 2:6` (d) But the sacrifice for sins does not complete the work of
Atonement, except so far as the satisfaction of the claim of Justice is concerned. By
virtue of the ransom paid to Justice, a transfer of man's account has been made, and his

::page 18::

case, his indebtedness, etc., is wholly transferred to the account of the Lord Jesus
Christ, who paid to Justice the full satisfaction of its claims against Adam, and his
race. Thus Jesus, by reason of this "purchase" with his own precious blood, is
now in consequence the owner, master, "Lord, of all." `Rom. 14:9` (e) One object
in this arrangement for Adam and his race was the annulment of their death sentence,
which, so long as it remained, estopped Love from any efforts to recover the condemned,
whose privileges of future life under any circumstances were wholly abrogated--destroyed.
(f) Another object was the placing of the fallen race beyond the reach of divine Justice,
and under the special supervision of Jesus, who as the representative of the Father's plan
proposes not only to satisfy the claims of Justice, but also undertakes the instruction,
correction and restitution of so many of the fallen race as shall show their desire for
harmony with Justice. Such he will ultimately turn over to the Justice of the divine law,
but then so perfected as to be able to endure its perfect requirements. (g) Though
originally the only separating influence between God and man was the divine sentence,
now, after six thousand years of falling, degradation and alienation from God through
wicked works--and because of ignorance, superstition, and the wiles of the Adversary--and
because the divine character and plan have been misrepresented to men, we find the message
of grace and forgiveness unheeded. Although God freely declares, since the ransom was
accepted, that he is now ready to receive sinners back into harmony with himself and to
eternal life, through the merit of Christ's sacrifice, nevertheless the majority of
mankind are slow to believe the good tidings, and correspondingly slow to accept their
conditions. Some have become so deluded by the sophistries of Satan, by which he has
deceived all nations (`Rev. 20:3`), that they do not believe that there is a God; others
believe in him as a great and powerful adversary, without love or sympathy, ready and
anxious to torment

::page 19::

them to all eternity; others are confused by the Babel of conflicting reports that have
reached them, concerning the divine character, and know not what to believe; and, seeking
to draw near unto God, are hindered by their fears and by their ignorance. Consequently,
as a matter of fact, the number who have yet availed themselves of the opportunity of
drawing nigh unto God through Christ is a comparatively small one--"a little
flock." (h) Nevertheless, the sacrifice for sins was not for the few, but for the
"many," "for all." And it is a part of the divine program that he who
redeemed all with his own precious blood shall ultimately make known to all men, "to
every creature," the good tidings of their privilege under divine grace, to return to
at-one-ment with their Creator. (i) Thus far only the Church has been benefited by the
Atonement, except indirectly; but the teaching of the Scriptures is that this Church shall
constitute a priestly Kingdom, or "royal priesthood," with Christ the Royal
Chief Priest, and that during the Millennial age this Heavenly Kingdom class, this royal
priesthood, shall fully and completely accomplish for mankind the work of removing the
blindness which Satan and error and degradation brought upon them, and shall bring back to
full at-one-ment with God whosoever wills, of all the families of the earth. (j) In
harmony with this is the Apostle's statement that we, believers, the Church, have
received the Atonement. The Atonement was made, so far as God was concerned, eighteen
centuries ago, and that for all; but only believers have received it in the sense of
accepting the opportunity which the grace of God has thus provided--and the rest of
mankind are blinded. "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which
believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God,
should shine unto them." `2 Cor. 4:4` (k) In harmony with this thought also is the
statement of ::page 20::

Scripture, that the first work of Christ in connection with his Millennial reign, will
be to bind, or restrain, Satan, that he shall deceive the nations no more for the thousand
years (`Rev. 20:3`), also the numerous statements of the prophets, to the effect that when
the Kingdom of God shall be established in the earth, the knowledge of the Lord shall fill
the whole earth, as the waters cover the great deep, and none shall need to say to his
neighbor, "Know thou the Lord" (`Heb. 8:11`), also the petition of the Lord's
prayer, "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth"--because this implies what
the Apostle expressly declares, that God desires all men to be saved and come to a
knowledge of the truth. `1 Tim. 2:4` (l) The Atonement, in both of its phases--the
satisfaction of Justice, and the bringing back into harmony or at-one-ment with God of so
many of his creatures as, under full light and knowledge, shall avail themselves of the
privileges and opportunities of the New Covenant--will be completed with the close of the
Millennial Age, when all who shall wilfully and intelligently reject divine favor, offered
through Christ, "shall be destroyed from among the people," with "an
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his
power"--with a destruction from which there will be no hope of recovery by future
resurrection. `Acts 3:23`; `2 Thess. 1:9` (m) Then the great work of the Atonement will be
completed, and all things in heaven and in earth will be found in harmony with God,
praising him for all his munificence and grace through Christ; and there shall be no more
dying and no more sighing, no more pain there, because the former things shall have passed
away--as the result of the work of the Atonement, commenced by the propitiation of Justice
by our Redeemer's sacrifice, concluded by the full reconciliation of all found worthy of
eternal life. However the word Atonement may be viewed, it must be conceded that its use
at all, as between God and man, implies

::page 21::

a difficulty, a difference, an opposition, existing between the Creator and the
creature--otherwise they would be at one, and there would be no need of a work of
atonement, from either standpoint. And here particularly we discern the deadly conflict
that exists between the Bible and the modern doctrine of Evolution, which, for the past
thirty years in particular, has been permeating the faith of Christian people of all
denominations, and which shows itself most markedly in theological schools and in the
principal pulpits of Christendom. The Evolution theory denies the fall of man; denies that
he ever was in the image and likeness of God; denies that he was ever in a fit condition
to be on trial before the bar of exact Justice; denies that he ever sinned in such a
trial, and that he ever was sentenced to death. It claims that death, so far from being a
penalty is but another step in the process of evolution; it holds that man, instead of
falling from the image and likeness of God into sin and degradation, has been rising from
the condition of a monkey into more and more of the image and likeness of God. The logical
further steps of the theory would evidently be, to deny that there could be any justice on
God's part in condemning man for rising from a lower to a higher plane, and denying,
consequently, that Justice could accept a sin-offering for man, when there had been no sin
on man's part to require such an offering. Consistently with this thought, it claims that
Christ was not a sin-offering, not a sacrifice for sins--except in the same sense, they
would say, that any patriot might be a sacrifice for his country; namely, that he laid
down his life in helping to lift the race forward into greater liberties and privileges.
But we find that the Word of God most absolutely contradicts this entire theory, so that
no harmony is possible between the Scripture teaching and the teaching of Evolution
--science falsely so-called. Whoever believes in the Evolution theory, to that extent
disbelieves the Scripture theory; and yet we find a very large number of Christian

::page 22::

people vainly struggling and attempting to harmonize these antagonizing teachings. To
whatever extent they hold the theory of Evolution, to that extent they are off the only
foundation for faith which God has provided; to that extent they are prepared for further
errors, which the Adversary will be sure to bring forward to their attention, errors
presented so forcibly from the worldly-wise standpoint that they would, if it were
possible, deceive the very elect. But the very elect will have "the faith once
delivered to the saints"; the very elect will hold to the doctrine of the Atonement,
as presented in the Scriptures; the very elect will thus be guarded against every item and
feature of the Evolution theory: for the very elect will be taught of God, especially upon
this doctrine of the Atonement, which lies at the very foundation of revealed religion and
Christian faith. The Scriptures unequivocally testify that God created man in his own
image and likeness--mental and moral; that man, an earthly being, was the moral and
intellectual image or likeness of his Creator, a spirit being. They declare his communion
with his Creator in the beginning; they declare that his Creator approved him as his
workmanship, and pronounced him "very good," very acceptable, very pleasing;
they show that the proposition of life or death was set before the perfect Adam, and that
when he became a transgressor it was an intelligent and wilful act, inasmuch as it is
declared that Adam "was not deceived." They declare the beginning of the
execution of the death penalty. They record the progress for centuries of the death
sentence upon the race. They point out how God revealed to faithful Abraham his purpose,
his intention, not at once, but later on, to bring in a blessing to the race, which he
declared he had cursed with the sentence of death. `Gen. 1:31; 2:17; 3:23`; `1 Tim. 2:14`;
`Gen. 12:3; 18:18; 3:17` Since the curse or penalty of sin was death, the blessings
promised implied life from the dead, life more abundant: and the promise to Abraham was
that in some unexplained way the Savior who would accomplish this work of blessing

::page 23::

the world should come through Abraham's posterity. The same promises were, with more or
less clearness, reiterated to Isaac, to Jacob and to the children of Israel. The prophets
also declared that the Messiah coming should be a Lamb slain, a sin-offering, one who
should "pour out his soul unto death," for our sins, and not for his own. And
they portrayed also the result of his sacrifice for sins, in the glory and blessing that
should follow; telling how ultimately his Kingdom shall prevail, and, as the Sun of
Righteousness, he shall bring into the world the new day of blessing and life and joy,
which shall dispel the darkness and gloom and the sorrow of the night of weeping, which
now prevails as the result of original sin and the fall, and inherited evil tendencies.
`Isa. 53:10-12; 35; 60; 61` The Apostle Peter, speaking under the inspiration of the holy
Spirit, so far from telling us that man had been created on the plane of a monkey, and had
risen to his present degree of development, and would ultimately attain perfection by the
same process of evolution, points, on the contrary, a reverse lesson, telling us that
Christ died for our sins, and that, as a consequence of the redemption accomplished by his
sacrifice, there shall ultimately come to mankind, at the second advent of our Lord, great
times of refreshing--times of restitution of all things, which, he declares, "God
hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." (`Acts
3:19-21`) Whoever may think the Apostle Peter was preaching a doctrine of evolution, when
preaching the gospel of restitution, must have closed his eyes and stopped the operation
of his reasoning faculties; for if the original condition of man was that of a monkey, or
if it was anything whatever inferior to our present condition, the Apostle would have been
the veriest fool to hold out, as a grand hope and prospect, times ofrestitution,
for restitution means a restoration of that condition which previously existed. On the
contrary, the Apostle's words are thoroughly out of harmony with and antagonistic to the
theory of evolution,

::page 24::

and in strictest harmony with the doctrine of the Atonement, reconciliation and
restitution--in strictest harmony with the Scriptural teaching that mankind were sold
under sin, and became the slaves of sin, and suffered the degradation of sin, as the
result of father Adam's original disobedience and its death-penalty. Restitution, the good
tidings which Peter preached, implies that something good and grand and valuable was lost,
and that it has been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, and that it shall
be restored, as the result of this redemption, at the second advent of Christ.
And the Apostle's reference to the prophets, declaring that these restitution times were
mentioned by all of them who were holy, distinctly implies that the hope of restitution is
the only hope held out before the world of mankind by divine inspiration. All the Apostles
similarly pointed backward to the fall from divine favor, and to the cross of Christ as
the point of reconciliation as respects divine Justice, and forward to the Millennial age
as the time for the blessing of all the world of mankind with opportunities of knowledge
and help in theirreconciliation to God. They all point out the present
age as the time for the gathering out of the elect Church to be associates with Messiah
(his "royal priesthood" and "peculiar people") to cooperate with him
as his "bride," his "body," in the work of conferring upon the world
the blessings of restitution secured for them by the sacrifice finished at Calvary. Mark
the words of the Apostle Paul along this line: "By one man's disobedience sin entered
into the world"--and death as a result of sin; and so death passed upon all men,
for [by reason of inherited sin and sinful dispositions] all are sinners. The Apostle Paul
quite evidently was no more an Evolutionist than the Apostle Peter and the prophets. Mark
the hope which he points out as the very essence of the Gospel, saying: "God
commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us;
much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath
::page 25::

through him." (`Rom. 5:8,9`) Here is a specific declaration that the race was
under divine wrath; that the saving power was the blood of Christ, the sacrifice that he
gave on our behalf; and that this sacrifice was an expression of divine love and grace.
The Apostle proceeds to show the work of Atonement, and the restitution which will follow
as a result, saying: "As through one offense [Adam's disobedience] sentence came upon
all men to condemnation [the death sentence]; so also through one righteous act the free
gift [the reversal of the sentence] came on all men unto justification of life. For as
through the disobedience of one man [Adam] many were made sinners [all who were in
him], so by the obedience of one [Jesus] many [all who ultimately shall avail themselves
of the privileges and opportunities of the New Covenant] shall be constituted
righteous." `Rom. 5:12,18,19` The same Apostle, in many other of his masterly and
logical discourses, presents the thought that the Atonement, so far as God is concerned,
is a thing of the past--finished when "we were reconciled to God through the
death of his Son," while we were yet sinners. (`Rom. 5:10`) In this he evidently did
not refer to a work accomplished in the sinner, reconciling the sinner to God, because he
states it in the reverse manner, and declares that it was accomplished, not in us, but by
Christ for us, and while we were sinners. Note also that in various of his
learned and logical discourses he points out a work of blessing to the world, to be
accomplished through the glorified Church, under Christ, her divinely appointed Head,
showing that it will consist in bringing the world to a knowledge of God's grace in
Christ, and that thus so many of the redeemed world as may be willing can return
to at-one-ment with their Creator during the Millennial Kingdom--a restitution of the
divine favor lost in Eden. As an illustration of this point note the argument of `Rom.
8:17-24`. Here the Apostle distinctly marks as separate salvation of the Church and the
subsequent salvation

::page 26::

or deliverance of the world, the "groaning creation." He calls attention to
the Church as the prospective joint-heir with Christ, who, if faithful in suffering with
him in this present time, shall ultimately share his glory in his Kingdom. He assures us
that these sufferings of this present time are unworthy of comparison with the glory that
shall be revealed in us by and by. And then he proceeds to say that this glory to be
revealed in the Church after its sufferings are all complete, is the basis for all the
earnest expectations of the groaning creation--whose longings and hopes necessarily await
fruition in the time when the sons of God shall be revealed or manifested. Now the sons of
God are unrevealed; the world knows them not, even as it knew not their Master; and though
the world, indeed, looks forward with a vague hope to a golden age of blessing, the
Apostle points out that all their earnest expectations must wait for the time when the
Church, the sons of God, shall be glorified and shall be manifested as the kings and
priests of God's appointment, who shall reign over the earth during the Millennial age,
for the blessing of all the families of the earth, according to the riches of divine grace
as revealed by God in his promise to Abraham, saying: "In thy seed shall all the
families of the earth be blessed." `Gal. 3:8,16,29` The Apostle proceeds to show that
mankind in general, the intelligent earthly creation, was subjected to frailty
("vanity") by heredity, by the transgression of father Adam, according to divine
providence, and yet is not left without hope; because under divine arrangement also, a
sacrifice for sins has been provided, and provision made that ultimately mankind in
general may be emancipated, set free, from the slavery of sin, and from its penalty,
death, and may attain the glorious freedom (from sickness, pain, trouble, sorrow) which is
the liberty of all who are the sons of God. It was from this plane of sonship and such
"liberty" that mankind fell through disobedience, and to the same

::page 27::

plane of human sonship they will be privileged to return, as a result of the great
sin-offering at Calvary, and of the completion of the work of Atonement in them,
reconciling them to the divine law by the Redeemer, as the Great Prophet, the antitype of
Moses. (`Acts 3:22,23`) The Apostle also points out that the Church, which already has
received the Atonement (accepted the divine arrangement) and come into harmony with God,
and has been made possessor of the first-fruits of the spirit, nevertheless, by reason of
the surroundings, groans also, and waits for her share of the completed work of the
Atonement, in her complete reception to divine favor, the deliverance of the body of
Christ, the Church, in the first resurrection. `Rom. 8:23-25` These two features of the
Atonement, (1) the righting of the wrong, and (2) the bringing of the separated ones into
accord, are shown in the divine proposition of a New Covenant, whose mediator is Christ
Jesus our Lord. When father Adam was perfect, in complete harmony with his Creator, and
obedient to all of his commands, a covenant between them was implied, though not formally
expressed; the fact that life in its perfection had been given to father Adam, and that
additionally he had been given dominion over all the beasts and fish and fowl, and over
all the earth as the territory of his dominion, and the additional fact that it was
declared that if he would violate his faithfulness to the Great King, Jehovah, by
disobedience, he would forfeit his life and vitiate all those rights and blessings which
had been conferred upon him--this implied, we say, a covenant or agreement on God's part
with his creature that his life was everlasting, unless he should alter the matter by
disobedience, and bring upon himself a sentence of death. The disobedience of Adam, and
its death penalty, left him utterly helpless, except as the Almighty provided for the
recovery of the race through the New Covenant, and the New Covenant, as the Apostle points
out, has a mediator --God, on the one part, deals with the mediator, and not

::page 28::

with the sinner; the sinner, on the other part, deals with the mediator, and not with
God. But before our Lord Jesus could become the Mediator he must do for mankind a work
which, in this figure, is represented as sealing the New Covenant with his own
precious blood--"The blood of the New Covenant." (`Matt. 26:28`; `Mark 14:24`;
`Heb. 7:22; 9:15-20`) That is to say, God, in justice, cannot receive nor deal with the
sinner, either directly, or indirectly through a mediator, so as to give the sinner a
release from the sentence of death, and reconciliation to God, with its accompanying
blessing, the gift of eternal life--except first divine Justice be remembered and
satisfied. Hence it was that our Lord Jesus, in paying our penalty by his death, made
possible the sealing of the New Covenant between God and man, under the terms of which all
who come unto God by him, the mediator, are acceptable. Reconciliation with God,
at-one-ment with him, was impossible until, first, the redemption had been secured with
the precious blood, that the one seeking at-one-ment might approach God, through the
mediator of the New Covenant: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no man cometh
unto the Father but by me." (`John 14:6`) It is for this reason that the highest
privilege of the most favored of mankind, previous to the commencement of Christ's
sacrifice, was that of "servants" and "friends" of God--none could be
accorded the high privilege of sonship (with all that this implies of divine favor and
eternal life), and none were thus recognized. (`John 1:12`; `Matt. 11:11`) Thus it will be
seen that those who ignore the sin-offering and Justice-appeasement features of the
Atonement are ignoring important and indispensable parts--primary and fundamental
features. But not less do others err, who, while recognizing the sacrifice of Christ as
the sacrifice of the Atonement for sealing the New Covenant, ignore a work of
reconciliation toward men, by which men are to be brought, through the operation of the
New Covenant, back into harmony with God.

::page 29::

Nor can this work of Atonement, so far as mankind is concerned, be accomplished
instantaneously and by faith. It may begin in an instant and by faith, and at-one-ment
may be reckonedly accomplished between the sinner and the Almighty through faith; but the
scope of the At-one-ment which God purposes is grander and higher than this. His
arrangement is that those of the human race who desire to return to at-one-ment with him
(and his righteous law) shall be reckonedly accepted through their Mediator, but shall not
be fully and completely received (by the Father) while they are actually imperfect. Hence,
while it is the work of the Mediator (Head and "body") to proclaim to mankind
the fact that God has provided a sin-offering, whereby he can be just and yet receive the
sinner back into harmony with himself, and that he is now willing to confer the blessing
of sonship and its eternal life and freedom from corruption, it is additionally his work
to make clear to all mankind that this offer of salvation is a great boon and should be
promptly accepted and that its terms are but a reasonable service; and additionally to
this, it is the Mediator's work, as the Father's representative, to actually restore --to
mentally, morally and physically restitute mankind--so many of them as will receive his
ministry and obey him. Thus eventually the Mediator's work will result in an actual
at-one-ment between God and those whom the Mediator shall restore to perfection. This
great work of the Mediator has appropriated to it the entire Millennial Age; it is for
this purpose that Messiah's Kingdom shall be established in the earth, with all power and
authority: it is for this purpose that he must reign, that he may put down every evil
influence which would hinder the world of mankind from coming to a knowledge of this
gracious truth of divine love and mercy; this provision under the New Covenant, that
"whosoever will" may return to God. But while the great Mediator shall thus
receive, bless and restore, under the terms of the New Covenant, all who desire fellowship
with God through him,

::page 30::

he shall destroy from among the people, with an everlasting destruction, all who, under
the favorable opportunities of that Millennial Kingdom, refuse the divine offer of
reconciliation. `Acts 3:23`; `Matt. 25:41,46`; `Rev. 20:9,14,15`; `Prov. 2:21,22` The
close of the Millennial age will come after it shall have accomplished all the work of
mediation for which it was designed and appointed. And there the mediatorial office of
Christ will cease because there will be no more rebels, no more sinners. All desirous of
harmony with God will then have attained it in perfection; and all wilful sinners will by
that time have been cut off from life. Then will be fulfilled our Lord's prophecy that all
things in heaven and earth will be found praising God; and then will be realized the
divine promise that there shall be no more dying, no more sighing and no more crying,
because the former things (conditions) will have passed away. `Rev. 21:4`; `Psa. 67` When
the great Mediator-King shall resign his completed work to the Father, delivering up his
office and kingdom as the Apostle explains (`1 Cor. 15:24-28`), what lasting results may
we expect the great Mediator's redemptive work toward mankind to show? It will have
accomplished: (1) The sealing of the New Covenant with his own precious blood; making its
gracious provisions possible to all mankind. (2) The reconciling or bringing back into
harmony with God of a "little flock," a "royal priesthood," zealous of
good works--willing to lay down their lives in God's service; who, because thus copies of
their Savior, shall by divine arrangement be privileged to be his joint-heirs in the
Millennial Kingdom and partakers of his divine nature. `1 Pet. 2:9,10`; `Titus 2:14`;
`Rom. 8:29` (3) The reconciliation, the full restitution, of an earth full of perfect,
happy human beings--all of mankind found desirous of divine favor upon the divine terms:
these the

::page 31::

Mediator turns over to the Father, not only fully restored but fully instructed in
righteousness and self-control and full of the spirit of loyalty to God, the spirit of
holiness and possessed of its blessed fruits--meekness, patience, kindness,
godliness--love. In this condition they shall indeed be blameless and irreproachable, and
capable of standing every test. (4) The destruction of all others of the race, as unworthy
of further favor--the cumberers of the ground, whose influence could not be beneficial to
others, and whose continued existence would not glorify their Creator. Thus, at the close
of the Millennial age, the world will be fully back in divine favor, fully at-one with
God, as mankind was representatively in harmony, at-one with God, in the person of Adam,
before transgression entered the world: but additionally they will possess a most valuable
experience with evil; for by it they will have learned a lesson on the sinfulness of sin,
and the wisdom, profit and desirableness of righteousness. Additionally, also, they will
possess an increase of knowledge and the wider exercise of the various talents and
abilities which were man's originally in creation, but in an undeveloped state. And this
lesson will be profitable, not to man alone, but also to the holy angels, who will have
witnessed an illustration of the equilibrium of divine Justice, Love, Wisdom and Power in
a measure which they could not otherwise have conceived possible. And the lesson fully
learned by all, we may presume, will stand for all time, applicable to other races yet
uncreated on other planets of the wide universe. And what will be the center of that story
as it shall be told throughout eternity? It will be the story of the great ransom
finished at Calvary and of the atonement based upon that payment of the corresponding
price, which demonstrated that God's Love and Justice are exactly equal. In view of the
great importance of this subject of the Atonement, and in view also of that fact that it
is so imperfectly comprehended by the Lord's people, and in view, additionally,

::page 32::

of the fact that errors held upon other subjects hinder a proper view of this important
subject, we propose, in its discussion in this volume, to cover a wide range, and to
inquire: (1) Concerning Jehovah, the Author of the plan of the Atonement. (2) Concerning
the Mediator, by whom the Atonement sacrifice was made, and through whose instrumentality
all of its gracious provisions are to be applied to fallen man. (3) Concerning the holy
Spirit, the channel or medium through which the blessings of reconciliation to God are
brought to mankind. (4) Respecting mankind, on whose behalf this great plan of Atonement
was devised. (5) Respecting the ransom, the center or pivotal point of the Atonement.
Taking these subjects up in this, which we believe to be their proper and logical order,
we hope to find the divine statement respecting these various subjects so clear, so
forceful, so satisfactory, as to remove from our minds much of the mist, mystery and
misconception which has hitherto beclouded this admittedly important subject of the
Atonement. But to attain these desirable results we must not come to these subjects
hampered by human creeds or opinions. We must come to them untrammeled by prejudice,
ready, willing, nay anxious, to be taught of God; anxious to unlearn whatever we have
hitherto received merely through our own conjectures or through the suggestions of others,
that is not in harmony with the Word of the Lord; anxious also to have the whole counsel
of God upon every feature of this subject. To all who thus come, who thus seek, who thus
knock, the great Teacher opens the way, and "they shall be all taught of God."
`Isa. 54:13`